Blog Posts
Meet the Team: Ricky Bhargava, Director of Safety and Regulation
There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes to get our drones in the air. One of the most critical pieces of the puzzle is getting the right regulatory approvals in place and ensuring that we have top safety frameworks in place. We catch up with Skyports’ Director of Safety & Regulation, Ricky Bhargava, to hear how he applies his safety experience from crewed aviation to our operations, how the regulatory landscape has evolved in the last five years, and what more needs to be done from a regulatory standpoint to unlock the full potential of drones.
Meet the team: Grant Eaton, Flight Operations Manager, Australia
Grant Eaton is one of our Australian Flight Operations Managers, and has been central to getting us settled in and kicking off live operations.
Here we catch up with him to hear about everything he’s been up to, from setting up our Remote Operations Centre in Sydney for BVLOS flights, to executing a 150km drone survey for a major Australian infrastructure project.
Come on in: Skyports’ new flagship Drone Operations Hub
Join us for a quick virtual tour of our new facility, which provides us with the state-of-the-art facilities we need to drive our global operations to the next level.
Meet the team: Chloe Prescott, Hub Operator, Royal Mail
Since 2023 Skyports and Royal Mail have been operating the UK’s first permanent inter-island drone delivery service, delivering mail to the island residents of Graemsay and Hoy in the Orkney Islands. Here we catch up with Chloe Prescott, one of Royal Mail’s Hub Operators, who works with Skyports’ remote pilots to make the service run like clockwork and help ensure island residents get their essential mail delivered on time.
Meet the team: Darryl Woon, Flight Ops Manager, Singapore
Singapore is one of our main global drone operations hubs. Here we catch up with Darryl Woon, FlightOps Manager in Singapore, to hear about some of the unique challenges that come with operating drones in such a densely populated city, and how he oversees operations that run seven days a week for one of our customers.
Airborne solutions to waterborne problems – drones’ potential for UK Water
With the UK facing up to longer term issues around water security, our own Peter Stirratt shares his thoughts on the role that drones could play in safeguarding UK water systems, from monitoring reservoirs to identifying leaks in pipelines, and helping to remotely monitor water quality in waterways.
Meet the Team: Kanyarat Nanthavisit, Regulatory & Safety Associate
Whilst the Regulations and Safety team operates “behind the scenes”, they are critically important to the safe and successful completion of our missions.
Here we speak to our Regs & Safety Associate Kanya to get the inside view from the Regs team – covering some of our latest regulatory “big wins”, to how drone regulations compare to regulations within conventional aviation.
Meet the team: Julia Smith-Vidal, Technical Operations Manager
Having the best technology out there and making sure it’s working right is critical to the success of our operations. Here we catch up with one of our TechOps Managers, Julia, to hear how she keeps our missions running like clockwork.
Meet our team: Tom Brough, Drone Pilot
Drone Pilots play a critical role in our operations, and there’s more to it than you’d think. We sat down with one of our new pilots, Tom Brough, to get the inside scoop on what it’s really like.
Meet our team: Josh Smithurst, Team Lead and Drone Pilot
Josh started with Skyports at the start of 2024 as a Drone Pilot, making it to Team Lead not too long after. Here he talks about what it’s really like, from the nitty gritty of project planning to hanging out at monster truck rallies in Michigan.
Breaking Barriers: Transforming health and logistics with drones in remote Australia
By Scott Wheeler, Head of APAC, Skyports Drone Services. Australia, with its vast landscapes, sprawling coastlines, and widely dispersed population, presents a unique set of challenges, and opportunities, for drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). Across healthcare, infrastructure, environmental management, and defence, drones are poised to transform how Australia responds to its geographical realities…
